


Across The Table

by fumomoshi



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Dinner, F/F, First Dates, Fluff and Angst, Senpai-Kouhai Relationship, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 13:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15774933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fumomoshi/pseuds/fumomoshi
Summary: Lena was having some trouble with her homework as a freshman enrolled into an accelerated course in a university, away from home. She didn't expect the lady sitting across her to actually help tutor her.





	Across The Table

Lena squinted at her textbook, a frown forming on her face as she tried to decipher the words. The contents’ in English, her native tongue, but somehow the meaning of the words constantly baffled her. She would reread sentences, trying to understand it as if it’s written in greek. Well, technically,  _ some  _ of the symbols  _ are  _ Greek, and ironically, those aren’t the ones confusing her.

“Argh!” Lena reeled back into her seat in frustration. “Why is maths so fucking hard!” 

“Shh!  _ Silencio por favor! _ ” 

Lena gasped and covered her mouth with both hands in shock. She looked around, noticing that some people were glaring at her. It made sense, of course, since this is a library. Embarrassed, she cowered into her textbook, waiting for the glares to stop before sighing to herself in disappointment. She didn’t mean to outburst. She thought she was just thinking to herself.

Still, she thought she should apologize to the person who snapped at her in the first place. Lena peered over her textbook. Directly in front of her sat a woman in dark skin and shoulder length hair kept to one side, with purple highlights towards the end. Her eyes were fixated on her laptop, tapping non-stop at its keyboard. 

Lena waited for the opportune moment. She pretended to go back to her studies, stealing a glance every once in a while to catch her when she’s free. The woman didn’t budge from her focus. Her posture was still. Only her eyes and fingers were moving. Lena thought she looked cool. It felt like she knew what she was doing and was in control with her work.  

_ Unlike me.  _

Lena groaned silently at her mathematics textbook. Her grades weren’t doing very well, which drove her to the library to study, away from all the distractions. It wasn’t working very well, most probably because she realized that she didn’t take notes nor paid attention in class. 

_ It’s the lecturer’s fault. He’s so booooring.  _

Then the quiet tapping stopped. Lena looked over her textbook. The woman stretched her arms, a triumphant grin on her face as she slowly closed her laptop. Lena thought she looked beautiful in that moment. Maybe it’s the confidence? Lena wasn’t sure but she was starting to get nervous trying to bring up her gut to interact with her.

“S-sorry!” Lena mumbled. 

“Hmm?” The woman looked around, slightly confused, and finally towards Lena, eyebrowed raised. 

Lena’s heart skipped a beat. She could hear it thumping deafeningly in her ears. She held her breath, forcing herself to calm down.  _ What are you nervous about!  _ She scolded herself.

“...was that you?” The woman asked, her words clear but her accent slightly off. Spanish? Mexican? Lena couldn’t tell. She’s only in her one year in this university and in USA, so she still wasn’t accustomed to the different races and cultures of the country. Besides, in a school as prestigious as this that attracts so many foreigners like her, you could never guess.

“Sorry about earlier!” Lena’s strained her voice. 

“Earlier?” The woman raised an eyebrow. 

“You know, for my...outburst?” Lena said, suddenly feeling silly. "'Argh! Why is maths so effing hard!’, that one."

The woman chuckled. "Oh it’s fine.  _ ¡No hay que preocuparse! _ "

"No...hay...?"

"It means don’t worry," the woman said. "You aren’t from around here. Where are you from?"

"Great Britain!" Lena quipped. 

"That explains the accent," she remarked, nodding knowingly as if she knew from the start. She stole at glance at Lena’s workbook on the table. “Having trouble with homework?”

Lena made a face, enabling another chuckle from the woman. “You make funny faces,” she said.

“That’s mean!” Lena pouted. “That’s not something you’d say to someone having difficulties with their studies!”

“Shh!”

“Oh, sorry…”

The woman got up from her seat and leaned beside Lena, examining her workbook. “Ah, this…” she muttered as she traced her fingers over the words. 

Lena could only look in surprise. A small part of her was hoping that help would arrive, but she didn’t expect that to actually happen.  _ And to be standing so close too _ . She stole glances at the woman, distracted. There’s something about her that made Lena feel nervous. Maybe it’s her simple but stylish attire, a dark purple-black jacket over a tank top with jeans. Maybe it’s the or the way she confidently and cooly held herself, humming with ease as she read the book. She leaned forwards with a straight posture, her hips to one side - Lena’s side - who was pushing away the strong unusual urge to lie her head onto them.

“So which parts were you having problems with?” She asked, snapping Lena back into reality. 

“O-Oh! Er…the...whole thing…?” Lena said. 

“The whole…!” The woman rolled her eyes. “ _Dios mío!_ Have you not been listening in class?”

Lena’s ear went red. “I did!” She said. Then lowered her voice. “It just didn’t register in my head.” She lowered even more, looking away sheepishly. “The professor stinks.”

The woman pulled up her sleeves to look at her phone. “Looks like I have some time to kill,” she said. “Where shall we start?”

Lena’s eyes perked up. “You will?! Thanks...er...what’s your name?”

“Olivia.” She replied. “Olivia Colomar.”

“Lena Oxton!” Lena beamed proudly. “You can call me ‘Tracer’!”

“...Tracer?”

“That’s what they call me in the military!” She explained. “I’m the top pilot of my class and have already ran real missions! But before being officially assigned, I have to do some studies…” Lena looked down at her workbook. “Although I’m a freshman, I have to complete this Aerospace Engineering course by two years instead of four.” She gave a dry laugh. “Not going well, as you can see.”

“Well, it’s not too late. Besides, it’s only almost midterms.” Olivia said, pulling a chair to sit beside her. “What about your other subjects?”

“They are fine, though to be honest, I’m mostly scraping by. But mathematics is the kicker,” she groaned. “I don’t understand how everything works, or why am I even studying them. Look at these graphs! And these theorems named after people who just likes slapping their names onto them.” 

Lena threw her hands in exasperation and lowered her tone to sound like some old man. “‘ _ ’a’ squared plus ‘b’ squared is ‘c’ squared. Ho hum, do I call it the Right Angled Triangle Hypotenuse Theorem? No! I am Pythagoras! And so it shall be named as such. _ ” 

She deflated. “Well, at least I know what that theorem is used for but these ones in the book?  _ Le Hospital rule uses derivatives to help evaluate limits involving indeterminate forms. _ Like what are you talking about?! Is that even English? I’m English!”

Olivia laughed as softly as she could manage. “You’re funny! It’s  _ L’Hopital,  _ by the way. Not  _ Le Hospital. _ ”

“I calls them as I sees them,” Lena said.

Olivia sighed. “Well, shall we start at the beginning?”

Lena blinked. “Are you really going to tutor me? Wait, are you in Aerospace Engineering too?”

“I’m in a Computer Science,” Olivia said. “But we take similar modules. I also took some modules in engineering.” She took out a device and switched it on, revealing a purple holographic figure. 

“Whoa!” Lena went wide-eyed in amazement. “That’s so cool! Did you make this yourself? How did you do it?”

Olivia laughed and poked her nose. “By understanding maths.”

Lena would groan, but she ended up stopping her face from turning red.

* * *

“And that’s it! I think we are done for the day.” Olivia said, looking at her watch.  “That turned out better than I thought. You learn quickly.”

“They say I’m a fast learner!” Lena said proudly.

“Then could you explain why you needed help?” Olivia smirked.

“Aha! You got me there.” Lena smiled back. “You were a great teacher, then! Hey, maybe I’m a fast learner when there’s a good teacher. That means we make a good student-teacher combo.”

Olivia laughed. “You’re funny.” She said it many times, but she couldn’t help it. Lena  _ is  _ funny to her. In all her four years in this university, she had never met anyone like her. Or rather, she didn’t make an effort to meet anyone. “Wanna go on a date?”

Lena’s face instantly turned red. “H-huh?”

Olivia laughed again. “I mean getting some dinner. It’s late and I’m hungry.”

Lena’s face fell for a short while, before perking up again. “Sure! Do you have any place in mind? Other than fast food. I have been eating fast food ever since I came here.”

“Why don’t you try something else?” Olivia asked.

“Because it’s the only food I can trust,” Lena said. “I tried randomly entering diners and randomly ordering food but all of them either disappoint me or are really bad to my mouth. I entered a vegetarian place one time and ordered this bowl of raw veggies.” Lena face contorted at the memory. 

“Have you tried mexican?” Olivia said.

“I always wanted to because they smelt so good,” Lena shook her head. “But I don’t try food with names I can’t read. Like what is a  _ kweh-sah-di-las _ ? Or is it pronounced  _ key-sa-di-las _ ?”

“It’s quesadillas.” Olivia poked Lena’s head lightly. She had done it many times during her tutoring, which oddly enough allowed Lena to remember things easier. According to Lena herself, that is. “Please commit that to your brain,” she said, before taking out her device. 

With a push of a button, a purplish holographic image of a plate of the famous mexican wrapped dish appeared. Olivia pushed a few more buttons. For a moment, Lena could see not just purple, but other colors beginning to fill the image. Her stomach growled. She tried to grab the dish but her hands simply passed through. “Damn it!” 

“You can’t do that, silly.” Olivia said. “I’m not a miracle worker.” 

Just as she said that, the hologram flickered. Its color returned back to its default purple and eventually died off. “Gah!” Olivia cursed, hitting the device. She sighed and placed it back into her pockets.

“What’s the matter, love?” Lena asked. 

“Just some complications, apparently.” Olivia said. 

"Can’t you math it out?" Lena teased.

Olivia just shook her head. “Come on, let’s go get some food.”

* * *

“Quesadilla?”

“Here!” Lena raised her hands excitedly. Her mouth watered as her dish got placed in front of her. She took a whiff. “It smells so good! Olivia, do you want some?”

Olivia didn’t respond, instead mumbling to herself, seemly distracted.

“Hey, Olivia!”

“Huh wha-?” Olivia’s eyes blinked, returning back to reality. 

“Hey, are you still thinking about the device?”

Olivia looked away. “Yes, sorry. I’m just thinking what went wrong with my calculations...”

“Ease up!” Lena beamed. “You can fix it later, or tomorrow. Now it’s time to focus on the food. Have to enjoy life while it’s short, eh?” Lena grabbed a quesadilla and took a bite. She gasped. “Oh my god it’s hot! Mmn! Hawt!” She waved frantically, mouth wide open while trying to juggle the food inside. 

Olivia just sat and watched, amused at the circus act in front of her. Eventually, Lena calmed down and slowly chewed on the food. Her eyes widened. “It’s so good! I have never eaten anything like it!” 

Olivia placed a glass of ice water before her. “You should drink. And be careful with your next bite. You don’t want your life to be any shorter than it is already.”

Lena gave a silly sheepish grin. She blew into the quesadilla a couple of times before taking another bite. She gasped as the same thing happened again. “Hot! Oh my god why!”

Olivia snorted. Her stomach was starting to hurt from all the laughing she did today. “You should let the food cool first,” she suggested. “Like what I’m doing.”

“You were just distracted from your thoughts!” Lena said.

“Don’t be silly. I don’t do things without a purpose,” Olivia said. “Thinking about things and waiting for food to cool is killing two birds with one stone.”

“Wow, aren’t you an opportunist.” Lena said, still blowing hard on her quesadilla, completely disregarding Olivia’s advice. 

“Maybe that’s why I have no friends,” Olivia shrugged. 

“What?!” Lena gasped, this time not at her food. “How is that possible? I don't mean it in a mean way, of course. I mean, you are smart, kind and... smart! You can't tell me you didn't make any friends after spending four years here!”

“I'm not sure if I would call myself kind,” Olivia said. “Smart, maybe. But not exactly kind. I take advantage of people more often than not.” 

“But some people like being taken advantage of,” Lena said. “Wow that sounded really wrong haha! Please don't quote me on that. But, anyway I don't think there's anything wrong with it.”

Olivia gave her a quizzing look. “So if someone lends you money all the time, you think it's okay to borrow from him forever?”

“If you put it that way, of course it sounds bad.” Lena said. “You need context, love! If someone is in poverty, don’t you think it isn’t strange for someone else to donate some of his money to him?”

Olivia frowned. “If he wants to, I guess?” 

“You gave me tutoring even though you didn’t have to, invited me for dinner and even showed me what a quesadilla is,” Lena commented. “If that’s not kind, I don’t know what is.”

Olivia couldn’t explain it. She simply thought that Lena’s an interesting person and would like to hang out more with her. 

_ Huh.  _

She wondered if that’s uncharacteristic of her to do so. She wasn’t exactly an introvert, preferring to hang out if she could like today. It’s just that nowadays she couldn’t find the reason to do so. She had friends, but those friendships didn’t last long. For some of them, she would lose interest in them and for others, it was plain personality clash. At first, she thought she would just find new friends, but at this point after four years in university, she would occasionally wonder if there’s something wrong with her.

Olivia shook her head. Her only friend is her computer. The computer does what it’s told. Logical, obedient, smart and above all interesting and full of possibilities.  

“You are thinking again, love.” Lena’s bright accent interrupted her train of thought. “You should relax, honestly. It’s a good day! Just think about how good this day is.”

“I guess you are right,” Olivia sighed and started eating. Her food had gotten cold. 

“How about this?” Lena said. “I’ll be your friend from now on.”

Olivia looked up. “What are we, in elementary grade?” She chuckled, forming air quotes. “Like, ‘Would you like to be my friend?’” 

“Don’t fret the details, love.” Lena took out her phone. “Let’s exchange numbers.” 

Olivia did. Almost eagerly. “Don’t come crying to me if you found out that I’m not a nice person,” she warned. 

“It’d be fine,” Lena said. “I have a good feeling about you.”

So did Olivia. In fact, it was more than a good feelings. Olivia never felt anything like it before. They had only interacted for less than a day and Olivia felt a strange connection with Lena. 

“You are strange,” Olivia muttered. 

“Hmm? Something on my face?”

“No, it’s nothing.” 

Lena put her phone away, looking satisfied. “Yeah!” She gave a smile that almost made Olivia nervous. “I’ll pay for dinner, since you helped me out so much.”

“You don’t have to, you know.” Olivia said. 

“But I  _ want  _ to!” Lena insisted, taking out her card. “Besides,” she lowered into a whisper. “This is paid for.” She winked. 

Olivia grinned. “Quite the opportunist you are.” 

“Guilty as charged!” Lena grinned back, pointing at Olivia with two finger guns. “A girl’s gotta eat, you know.”

They finally finished their meal. Lena paid as promise, brandishing and showing off her card at Olivia before placing it back into her wallet. Shortly after, they found themselves back on the street, heading back to their dormitories. 

“That was a great dinner!” Lena said. “It almost felt like a date!”

“Isn’t it one?” Olivia cocked her head aside. Lena gave her a surprised look that caused her to grin. “I mean, we got to know each other and you paid for the meal like a real man.” She explained.

“W-w-what!” Lena’s face was visibly red now. 

“I never said it wasn’t a date,” Olivia smiled. “Besides, didn’t you want this in the first place?”

“I-I’d never!”

Olivia gave a knowing shrug. “You are a bad liar. I saw you steal those glances at me while I was tutoring you.”

“That wasn’t-! I was just-!” Lena scrambled to find an excuse, but nothing coherent came out of her mouth. Olivia took a step forward. Lena’s heart beat faster and faster, panicking more and more as Olivia came closer and closer. 

“W-wait!”

Olivia stepped back, hands in the air. “I wasn’t going to do anything,” she said. “I’m sorry.” 

“Whew, you had me there for awhile,” Lena said. “Thought you were gonna kiss me or something.” 

“What if I did?” Olivia grinned. 

“It’d be too quick!” Lena said. “We haven't even held hands yet. Or asked each other out. The order would be wrong!” 

“Aha, it's a possibility then. So when are you going to ask me out?”

Lena’s face went bright red. “I'm not...into that…” her voice trailed away. 

“Liar.” 

Lena went silent, looking away. Olivia sighed. “Well, let's just leave it at that shall we?” She poked Lena’s cheek, who turned around in surprise, albeit dumbfounded. “We clearly like each other so why don't we hang out as friends for now?” 

“Uh, sure.” 

The awkward silence as they continued their way was deafening. Lena wasn't used to the silence. She wanted to break it, by humming a song - which didn't seem appropriate - or asking a question - which she couldn't think of any. The dormitory was close but it seemed so far away, as if time slowed down around them. 

To her relief Olivia broke the silence. “Look, sorry if I made everything awkward.” She said. “If you'd like I can disappear back into the shadows away from your life, and you can pretend none of this ever happened.” 

“What? No!” Lena exclaimed. “I think I just need more time to think about this. We could totally hang out! I mean, it's not like I dislike you or anything. I just need time to think about it. Yeah! Just need some time! To think!”

“Hey calm down, don't have to repeat yourself so many times.” Olivia said. “If you aren't interested you can say so too, just so you know. Then we'll just continue as friends.”

“I'm not…” Lena glanced away. “...disinterested. I think.”

Olivia waved her hands. “Don't force yourself, Lena. You said you need time to think so just take your time.” 

Lena nodded, forcing a smile. “Alright. Thanks.” 

“Great!” Olivia said. “So are you free tomorrow? I could tutor you some more. Or we could just hang out. As friends, of course.”

“Sure,” Lena laughed. “I was thinking that that sounded suspiciously like a date.” 

Olivia gave a grin. “That depends on how you see it.” 

“Bleh,” Lena stuck out her tongue. “You are quite the teaser, aren't you?” 

Olivia simply gave a knowing shrug. 

“I told you I'm not a nice person.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Finally wrote some fluff between my favorite pair in Overwatch <3  
> Thankfully it didn't drag out for too long.  
> Hope everyone enjoy reading it!


End file.
